Italianiserend landschap met geiten bij een rivier 1652 - 1728

Curator: This piece, "Italianiserend landschap met geiten bij een rivier," translates to Italianizing landscape with goats by a river. It’s an engraving created sometime between 1652 and 1728 by an anonymous artist, found here in the Rijksmuseum collection. Editor: Immediately, I'm struck by the framing; it feels like we’re peering into a secret world. The textures created by the engraving are remarkable – from the craggy rocks to the fluffy… are those goats? Curator: Yes, goats! You’ve got a small herd wading in the river, completely at peace within this almost theatrical landscape. What interests me is the sheer labor involved in producing this kind of intricate image. Think about the precise tooling required to create these fine lines on the copperplate, and the printing process that followed. Editor: Right, there's this dedication of countless hours of intensely detailed craftwork and labour—creating the work of art is like labour. It brings an almost meditative quality; this feels like more than just depicting a pretty scene. The Italianizing element is curious though; how would you read that in the work of an anonymous Dutch engraver? Curator: It speaks to the cultural trends of the time, a kind of yearning for the idealized landscapes of Italy that had become so fashionable among Northern European artists and patrons. They might not have ever gone to Italy, yet it held such a powerful grip on their imaginations. I mean the entire idea is really compelling and somehow romantic. Editor: But it makes you wonder about access to those Italian landscapes, about the economic systems at play allowing for cultural capital to travel, and for some to fantasize about Arcadia from afar, while the materials—the copper, the ink—tell their own story about trade networks and labor closer to home. The image becomes less about goats, and more about making an Italian style landscape by someone in a place which wasn't Italy! Curator: Absolutely. And for me, what really elevates this piece is its emotional accessibility. Even without knowing the historical context, I find myself drawn into the peace and charm of this imagined countryside. Maybe that's because of our desire, shared even now, to go into this type of escape. Editor: Well, even now the commodification of longing continues… It makes you reflect how much art still mediates our own desires and economic disparities today. Anyway, a surprisingly potent image created anonymously for whom? Curator: An interesting rabbit hole indeed, with layer upon layer that reveals how we relate art to society.